Should children under 16 be allowed social media?

In its weekly voxpop, the Advertiser found out what people think about people aged 16 and under having social media — should they be allowed?

Transcript

00:00No. And the reason is it causes too much infighting, bitterness, jealousy, one-upmanship. They're

00:19not allowed to communicate freely and the backstabbing that goes on is very, very dark

00:26and dangerous. I agree, yes. I think 16, probably a bit lower than 16, I think probably 14,

00:36they shouldn't be allowed it. Why they shouldn't be using, I think they don't interact with one

00:44another when they're on whatever platform, so I think it's not a good idea for that.

00:52I think children that age should know, they can know what they're doing and they should be able

00:55to use it. As long as they use it sensibly, then I can't see why not. I think they should,

01:02but I think obviously there should be some guidance from the parents. I do believe it

01:06should be, can I say, not invade the privacy, but you need to be aware of what your children

01:13are watching basically or what they're signing up to. They've got to be safe, they've got to

01:18be safe and I think education is the key there. Educate them when they're young, I do believe

01:23that, but I think nowadays, if they're out and about, it's always peace of mind for the parent

01:28to have a mobile phone, I don't know about social media. Yeah, it's a tough one that,

01:33because they've got to grow up, you can't protect them from everything, but also there's dangers

01:39which they're not going to be probably aware of and they're going to be naive to an age. So

01:44education, I think, from the parents, you know, you're not going to stop it all, but

01:50I would say that's the safest way to go. They definitely should not have access,

01:58no, because they're getting too much information that's not the truth.

02:04Or too much information that's not needed at that time in their lives, that's why they're

02:08growing up so quickly. And they're told too many lies on there, so my children, she is my daughter

02:18and she would not have been allowed to have one until she was grown up.